Lenya's Seven Brothers and Mork's Return

Lenya's Seven Brothers
Lenya Holt sat beside the river and places her pouch in her lap.  Her seven brothers found comfortable places to bed down in the reeds around her.  She could have gone back to the human villages in the valleys.  She might have been married by now, with perhaps a few smiling red-haired children.  But she hadn't.  Her brothers were her only family, and she was their only link to reality.  Many would have deemed it sentimental and ridiculous.  However they just couldn't bear to toss away the last remnants of their old life...the one that was full of summer picnics where the whole hoard of young, red-headed Holts used to swarm over the countryside as they played.  Where their mother and father used to build a fire and roast cinimon apples and fish on sticks so that the smell would draw the energetic children back from their games.  Those times were long gone.  Yet...family was all they had left...even if nothing would ever be quite the same.

 

Mork's Return
"Mork!"  Jane ran forward and scooped up the limping white cat in her arms.  Then she did what she'd always wanted to do, ever since that sarcastic, talking feline had strutted into her life five years ago.  She held him close and stroked his silky fur.  She kissed his ears and rubbed her cheek against his.  She expected her teacher to yowl and complain that this was a ridiculous display of affection, but he surprised her. 
He let her cuddle him and bask in the fact that they were both alive and well for nearly five minutes before he said gruffly, "Now, now...that's enough of that foolishness.  I see you didn't quite manage to get yourself killed.  You have some promise after all." 
"I looked for you.  You weren't at the bridge after the seige like you said you'd be.  I thought the Baron's men must have...or his dogs might have gotten--"
"Those flee-bitten gits?  Don't insult me!  I could've evaded them while napping.  Now, what I really want right now is a nice bowl of tuna and creme.  Don't suppose you remembered to grab any when you raided the Baron's supplies did you?"
"Actually, I did." said Jane with a smile.  The cat looked very surprised at this.
"Really?  Well I guess you really aren't as hopeless as I thought.  Now stop mussing my fur and carry me inside.  It's going to take me three hours to get clean after this little adventure of ours and I don't want you adding to the problem!"
Chuckling to herself at the return of her mentor's prickly nature, Jane carried Mork inside and shut the door.